found this article and thought I would post it here..I have read articles here about life span of good media being up to 100 years ..what do u figure this guy is talking about? Frank Do John Blau, IDG News Service Tue Jan 10, 8:00 AM ET Opinions vary on how to preserve data on digital storage media, such as optical CDs and DVDs. Kurt Gerecke, a physicist and storage expert at IBM Deutschland, has his own view: If you want to avoid having to burn new CDs every few years, use magnetic tapes to store all your pictures, videos and songs for a lifetime. "Unlike pressed original CDs, burned CDs have a relatively short life span of between two to five years, depending on the quality of the CD," Gerecke says. "There are a few things you can do to extend the life of a burned CD, like keeping the disc in a cool, dark space, but not a whole lot more." The problem is material degradation. Optical discs commonly used for burning, such as CD-R and CD-RW, have a recording surface consisting of a layer of dye that can be modified by heat to store data. The degradation process can result in the data "shifting" on the surface and thus becoming unreadable to the laser beam. "Many of the cheap burnable CDs available at discount stores have a life span of around two years," Gerecke says. "Some of the better-quality discs offer a longer life span, of a maximum of five years." Distinguishing high-quality burnable CDs from low-quality discs is difficult, he says, because few vendors use life span as a selling point. Similar Limitations Hard-drive disks also have their limitations, according to Gerecke. The problem with hard drives, he says, is not so much the disk itself as it is the disk bearing, which has a positioning function similar to a ball bearing. "If the hard drive uses an inexpensive disk bearing, that bearing will wear out faster than a more expensive one," he says. His recommendation: a hard-drive disk with 7200 revolutions per minute. To overcome the preservation limitations of burnable CDs, Gerecke suggests using magnetic tapes, which, he claims, can have a life span of 30 years to 100 years, depending on their quality. "Even if magnetic tapes are also subject to degradation, they're still the superior storage media," he says. But he's quick to point out that no storage medium lasts forever and, consequently, consumers and business alike need to have a migration plan to new storage technologies. "Companies, in particular, need to be constantly looking at new storage technologies and have an archiving strategy that allows them to automatically migrate to new technologies," he says. "Otherwise, they're going to wind up in a dead-end. And for those sitting on terabytes of crucial data, that could be a colossal problem."
I've been backing up my dvd's and games for just over 2 years now all still play fine. When I first started I bought discs like imitation, these still play without a hitch. Companies like maxell claim a long storage life but I guess time will tell. Thing I do now is periodically run certain discs through Nero scan and look for signs of degradation. Maybe someone whose been backing up for longer can reflect on their experiences. (esp if they have any cheaper brands burnt over say 3 years ago) *as we all know, a lot of discs have quality problems from the word go. So far I've been pretty lucky when I've used 3rd class media, tho I use maxell, verbatim and lately taiyo yuden now.
So if CD's have such a short lifespan, do DVD's much the same life expectency or is there a difference?
Can have a read at this; http://www.maxell-usa.com/Content/P...department=datamedia_tech&Line=dm&Open=dmwp03 and this; http://www.dvd-and-media.com/maxell-review.htm I've had the best results using maxell dvd-r for compatibilty (these have been mixed MIJ and Ritek g05) as you can see maxell claims a long post recording life of over 100 years, I'll check them discs around that time just to make sure. Theres wide variations of views on how long media will last, some have found on these forums that some brands have degenerated in a matter of months.
MEMOSUX comes to mind for me, 3 months to be exact~ not good i'm afraid, that's why i will NEVER recommend CMC MAG made media to anyone, unless i hate them with a passion and i want them to go BROKE on crappy media~ docTY~
